Hodshrove Woods Open Day
I have mentioned before about picking up invites to events at previous ones, well, this booking was picked up at Seedy Sunday in February.
Hodshrove Woods are on the Moulsecoomb estate in Brighton and are managed in conjunction with a forest and garden project. This piece of land is sited between two lots of housing and had previously been an overgrown area, which was used primarily for fly tipping. It was due to the hard work of a few local people that it was cleaned up
and cut back, with the aim of making it an open space for the nearby residents to use. For those who are not familiar with Brighton, the Moulsecoomb estate has a certain reputation, which is not a good one. However, various
organisations including the council are working hard to improve things for everyone.
The purpose of the event was to encourage the residents to use the space and show what could be done. The Woodlanders were invited to demonstrate and teach the local youngsters about the pole-lathe with the aim to encourage them to get involved with similar things in the area. I had been warned that the site might be a little bit difficult but when we turned up it was still a bit of surprise as most of the area was set on a steep slope.
However, never ones to be put off, Jo and I set about putting up the pole-lathe and shave-horse. The lathe needed a few pieces of wood under the front to level it up; also I had to put in a few pegs, some of which were made on site.
Once secure, the lathe was soon up and running, and on the shave-horse we were making a few plant labels. Slowly the children came in and were asking lots of questions and some did have a go, with varying degrees of success.
The whole event was interesting and a bit of an eye opener but it was good to just go to an event, doing work and teaching without having to set up everything else. Hopefully we might have inspired a couple of the children to build a pole-lathe or shave-horse at the other project which will be a good outcome all round.
By Chris Burchell-Collins
